1) All criticism is a kind of box--history included.
2) Boxes are categories--anatomies. They never contain the living for long.
3) Every category--every box--is already there, i.e. contains/is made by an
a priori set of assumptions. For example, history is always somebody's
history of something: British history, Irish history, American history,
political history, world history, history of the universe, . . . .
History's a corpse we're trying to revive because, after all, our body of
knowledge--history--is dead weight and dead weight is heavy. See Blake's
MILTON.
5) Yes history is ethical--everything has its place in history, but
placement is internment--being buried alive. See Aristotle's description of
movement, especially self-movement, as life. His _Ethics_ depend on his
_Physics_.
6) Kant realized in his _Aesthetics_that free play --the unethical, freely
associative process of art--was a non-categorical way (not that categories
don't arise from free play and its asignation) of generating meaning.
Consider critical free play as a way of assigning meaning that
crosses/breaks categorical boundaries. Music makes a great example. See
Hesse's _The Glass Bead Game_.
7) Remember that seriousness kills the dance.
JMC
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